Passing length in form of a string instead of measure

Question

I'd like to pass a measure of length in form of a string, i.e.

\setlength{string}

or

\setlength{'string'}

instead of

\setlength{2.5cm}

I seem to remember seeing something like that somewhere in LaTeX, but can't find it. Appreciate your input!

1 minute. I love StackExchange. @egreg Wonderful, thanks a lot! I'd mark it as the answer, but I can't do that with a comment. Werner - it's not the exact same issue, though I see your point. — Zubo, Jan 27 '16 at 22:28
@Zubo: Questions are phrased differently, but they use the same principles. The other is actually a little more comprehensive than this request, making this one a subset of the linked post (in my opinion). I'm voting to close as a duplicate. — Werner, Jan 27 '16 at 23:41

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 27 '16 at 22:39

The LaTeX kernel provides

\settowidth
\settoheight
\settodepth

and you probably want the first one:

\newlength{\somelength}

\settowidth{\somelength}{some text}

Note that it's better to set lengths to a text dependent width after \begin{document}. So, if you need \somelength for a macro definition in the preamble, you should do

\newcommand{\foo}{...depending on \somelenght...}

\AtBeginDocument{\settowidth{\somelength}{some text}}

Excellent, thanks for the detailed explanation! – Zubo Jan 27 '16 at 22:58 — Zubo, Jan 27 '16 at 22:58

Passing length in form of a string instead of measure

1 Answers1